September! Summer’s over, and the fall creeps in! Eventually. Fall is the best two weeks of the year in Toronto. Even though it’s film festival season, you wouldn’t know it from this month’s releases. It’s pretty rough, but as usual there’s a few potential gems in there. Let’s break it down.

THE PREDATOR – Sept. 14. It’s nice to see ol’ spider-face back in action after the oddly forgettable PREDATORS back in 2010. This time Shane Black (IRON MAN 3, KISS KISS BANG BANG) is behind the camera. Early word is pretty good, and it’s an interesting cast with Boyd Holbrook (LOGAN), Sterling K. Brown (BLACK PANTHER), Olivia Munn, even Keegan-Michael Key is in there. Fingers crossed Shane brings it home.

WHITE BOY RICK – Sept. 14. Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Jason Leigh lead the cast in this true story of a fifteen year old white kid who becomes an unlikely drug kingpin turned FBI informant. Looks bonkers, in a good way. It should scratch that SCARFACE itch.

THE HOUSE WITH A CLOCK IN THE WALLS (WITH MICHAEL JACKSON’S THRILLER) – IMAX – Sept. 21. Cate Blanchett and Jack Black take on Kyle McLachlan’s ghost in a kid-friendly FX heavy frightfest directed by HOSTEL’s Eli Roth. Let that all sink in for a moment. On top of that, they’ve inexplicably remastered Michael Jackson’s THRILLER in IMAX 3D and tacked it on, even though the movie isn’t in 3D. This should make for an insane night’s entertainment.

A SIMPLE FAVOR – Sept. 14. Paul Feig moves from comedy to thriller, bringing along Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively for the ride. Paul’s a great filmmaker so this should be solid, basically GONE GIRL with a touch of black, black comedy. Plus a friend of mine did the art for it!

FAHRENHEIT 11/9 – Sept. 21. Michael Moore takes another shot at the white house. He doesn’t have the pull he once had, but this target is bigger than anything he’s aimed at before, though in the end he’ll basically be preaching to the choir.

SMALLFOOT – Sept. 28. A tribe of yeti have never seen the human world before, and only tell the tale of the legendary smallfoot. Then a young yeti meets a human and freaks out everyone. It looks pretty goofy, but writer/director Karey Kirkpatrick made the underrated OVER THE HEDGE so he gets the benefit of the doubt. It’s got the usual all-star voice cast, with Channing Tatum, Zendaya, James Corden, Danny DeVito, and so many more.

NIGHT SCHOOL – Sept. 28. Kevin Hart is going to Night School! He’s trying to get his GED but it turns out he’s stupid. Can Tiffany Hadish make him learn gooder? Will the wacky group of students also learn to learn? Director Malcom D. Lee made last year’s hit GIRLS TRIP so it should deliver the goods.

THE NUN – Sept. 7. Do you like jumpscares? You might enjoy this addition to THE CONJURING universe. That’s pretty much it. Reviews are pretty harsh but hey, you don’t care about reviews, right?

LIFE ITSELF – Sept. 21. Do you like THIS IS US? How about crying? What about beautiful people crying and loving and dying in movies? Oh man, have I got the film for you. Two of the world’s most beautiful people, Oscar Isaac and Olivia Wilde, fall in love and create waves around the world, making non English speaking people love and cry and die too. I mentioned THIS IS US because it’s written and directed by its creator Dan Fogelman, so you can pretty much assume you’ll be blubbering multiple times throughout. Enjoy!

HELL FEST – Sept. 28. What better time to release a Halloween film than the end of September? A group of beautiful teens go to a scarefest only to witness a real murder. Or did they? Yeah they did. But did they? I’ll bet the last shot makes us question all of it.

LITTLE WOMEN – Sept. 28. What better way to do a new Little Women than get all meta on it? Four sisters who love the book basically live it out in a modern setting. So yeah, you’re gonna cry a lot. Lea Thompson plays the mom!

PEPPERMINT – Sept. 7. Jennifer Garner IS The Punisher! Basically. Reviews are terrible across the board, which is really a shame.

UNBROKEN: PATH TO REDEMPTION – Sept. 14. It’s a sequel to the Angelina Jolie directed story of the Olympian who survived being a prisoner of war in WWII. Here, he continues to suffer memories of the event until he attends a sermon from Billy Graham and, I assume, finds Jesus. That seems to be the plot. The first movie was a flop, but I’m sure the Jesus brigade will bring a few dollars in.

GOD BLESS THE BROKEN ROAD – Sept. 7. Speaking of the Jesus brigade, who likes grief porn? The widow of a soldier gives up on faith until her daughter starts hanging out with a hot race car driver and she finally gives in to the non-stop assault of her friends and family telling her to go back to church. That’s the story. And it’s very loosely based on a goddamn Rascall Flats song. Seems that this was also made in association with a Disabled American Veterans charity, so I guess if you don’t see this you hate the troops.

So there’s a few titles to check out this month. October’s got a few likely hits, but we’ll table that discussion for a few weeks. See you then.